


Le Désir du Cœur

by ElleEcrivain



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElleEcrivain/pseuds/ElleEcrivain
Summary: In a world where Marinette and Adrien know each other's identities from the start, the young heroes must balance fighting their archenemy and navigating their tumultuous social lives.Please note: Adrigami and Lukanette will be incorporated but Adrienette will be endgame. Don't like, don't read.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	1. préface

**Author's Note:**

> I want to be very clear with you guys, this is an Adrienette story. No hate to anyone who ships Lukanette or Adrigami or whatever else. You do you. 
> 
> This is a story I wrote in a frenzy and I honestly didn't put a lot of time into editing. I just wanted to write something and actually complete it. That was my goal here. I hope you all enjoy it!

There were a lot of things that confused Alya Cesaire. Nino, her boyfriend, and his insistence that Star Trek was better than Star Wars was one of the top contenders for most confusing. 

Another puzzling reality was pineapples on pizza. That was low, even for Americans. Admittedly not quite as confusing as socks with toes in them. And then there was open faced sandwiches which she _really_ didn’t get. 

But when Alya thought about what was really the most confusing thing in the world, it was a no brainer. Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste’s relationship was the single most confusing thing in the world. 

The two were thick as thieves and Alya’s closest friends besides Nino. The term that came closest to describing their relationship was “best friends”, but that just didn’t seem adequate enough. 

They were more than friends. It was like watching a planet orbit the sun. They seemed to move and function in perfect tandem. They reminded Alya of her twin sisters, except the twinception was about twenty times as powerful with her friends. 

Sometimes when Adrien looked at Marinette, Alya could swear that she had seen the same expression on Chat Noir’s face when he looked at Ladybug. It was _intense_. The kind of intense that said, “I would jump in front of a bullet for you.” It was the kind of intense that moved mountains. 

Whenever she thought about it too hard, Alya’s head started to ache and she lost track of her reasoning. 

But the impression remained. Adrien and Marinette were as close as any two people could be. Everyone knew that they just _had_ to be dating. They just dated in secret to hide the relationship from Adrien’s father, who never approved of anything he didn’t explicitly orchestrate. 

Alya was so sure of this that she didn’t believe Marinette when she denied it. It took a lot of vehement exclamations for Alya to start wondering if maybe they really _weren’t_ together. 

“Really, Alya. We aren’t like that,” Marinette repeated. 

“Then what _are_ you like?” Alya demanded, throwing her hands in the air. “I can’t figure you out! You say you aren’t together, but then you share food and clothes and sentences! You do basically everything together and you spend more time with him than you do with me! _I’m_ supposed to be your BFF.”

“Oh, Alya, I don’t mean to make you feel second best or anything like that,” Marinette grabbed her hands. She looked up at Alya with a frown. 

Alya’s mouth clamped shut. That’s not what she had meant at all. The last thing she wanted was to make her friend feel bad. 

“What I mean, Mari is that it’s really hard to accept the fact that you aren’t together. You’re _perfect_ for each other, everyone else can see it.”

Marinette relaxed, but she shook her head. 

“Adrien’s dad... Even if I did feel that way about him, we couldn’t be together. Adrien’s stuck under his dad’s thumb. The last thing Adrien needs is for his father to pull him out of school, which is guaranteed if he’s given any excuse.” Marinette played with her hands, unable to meet her best friend’s gaze. 

Alya frowned. She didn’t buy Marinette not— at the very least— _liking_ Adrien. 

“You sure you aren’t together in secret?” she asked dubiously. 

“Very sure,” Marinette replied pointedly. Alya held her hands up in surrender. 

“Alright, alright. Change of subject. Have you heard Jagged Stone’s new single?”

The conversation took off from there, but Alya left Marinette’s house with a wriggle of doubt in her mind. 

If they weren’t dating, or at least together, what was with their connection? Alya wasn’t sure. What she wanted to do was drop everything and try to discover the truth herself, but she knew that she needed to give Marinette her space. There was a fine line between journalism and being nosy. The difference was usually if the people involved were your friends.


	2. un

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey sleepyhead,” a familiar voice called. Marinette turned to see Adrien crossing the courtyard. He had a big, obnoxious smile on his face. Marinette groaned. Not one of those days. 

Marinette crawled into her bed, followed closely by Adrien. He let her snuggle into his arms, holding her tight. 

Marinette tried to be strong. They couldn’t afford to complicate things. They had to be careful, and because Adrien had such a hard time with that, it was up to Marinette to put up a wall. 

With everything they had been through, the pair was very physical. They hugged a lot, cuddled, and were often draped over one other. They were just so _comfortable_ with each other. It was easy as breathing— pure instinct to be close. Marinette usually drew the line at sleeping in the same bed, but not tonight. Tonight it was just too hard. 

Marinette pressed her face into Adrien’s chest. Being cradled against him was a tangible reminder that he was alive. It was a reminder that she needed. 

Whenever they were apart, a piece of Marinette seemed to go with Adrien. She became nervous and on edge, and had a hard time not running to his side. Tikki assured her that this was a normal part of their bond. Adrien felt it too. Being close like this soothed away a few _weeks_ worth of anxiety. She felt her heart relax. 

But there was something bothering her and it took away from the recovery. 

“You need to stop doing that,” she muttered. 

“Doing what?” Adrien asked, playing dumb. 

“Sacrificing yourself like that.” Marinette closed her eyes. She could clearly see today’s tragedy against the back of her eyes. She watched his death, watched the blast hit him, watched as he vaporized into nothing. 

“I’m not going to stop,” Adrien warned darkly. His arms tightened around her. Marinette’s face grew hot as she struggled to contain her anger. 

“Adrien—“

“No,” he said firmly. “It works and it’s necessary. Like it or not. I’m not going to argue with you about this again. It’s the last thing either of us need and neither of us is going to change our mind.”

Marinette exhaled slowly, trying to vent her frustration. She didn’t just dislike it, she _hated_ it. She hated watching him die. She hated being unable to do anything while she watched the light fade from his eyes. Most of all she hated that he was right, that sometimes it _was_ necessary to defeat akumas.

She tried her best to calm down. 

“Do you know what it does to me? To watch? To let you go?” Her voice became hoarse with pain. 

“I lived three straight months watching you die,” Adrien whispered back. “Three months resetting the clock back just a few minutes, only to watch you die again, completely helpless to stop it.”

Marinette’s mouth went dry. Pain bloomed in her chest. It was her _fault_. She had caused him unimaginable pain. “You never said—“

“I didn’t want you to dwell on it.”

“Oh, Adrien, I never would have asked if I had known—”

“Exactly. And you needed Aspik that day. It took a few thousand tries, but I figured it out. That isn’t your fault, and I knew that if I told you, you’d let your feelings about it get in the way. We can’t afford that.”

Marinette felt angry tears form in the corner of her eyes. Tikki had warned her that being a hero would be hard, but she never could have imagined this. 

They slipped into silence, and not for the first time, Marinette wondered if there would ever be an end to the pain. 

. . .

Adrien left sometime before sunrise. He had an early photoshoot, one that was supposed to be done before school. Marinette ached as she watched him go, glad that the separation would be short. 

The morning went by in a tired blur. When she found herself in the school courtyard she honestly couldn’t remember if she had eaten breakfast or brushed her teeth. She glanced down to make sure she had her pants on. Marinette really was not a morning person. 

“Hey sleepyhead,” a familiar voice called. Marinette turned to see Adrien crossing the courtyard. He had a big, obnoxious smile on his face. Marinette groaned. Not one of _those_ days. 

He swept her up in a giant bear hug, a moment of genuine relief escaping the both of them as they were reunited. He seemed to melt into her, a quiet sigh slipping from his mouth. 

And then he was pulling away and dragging her to where their friends stood, chipperly making conversation for the two of them. Marinette let him, still only half awake. She wondered what his father had done this time. Whenever he was mad at his dad, Adrien adopted an overly happy facade and did his best to forget about it. Marinette hoped it hadn’t been too bad. 

The warning bell rang, pulling Marinette from her worried brooding. She focused in on the conversation her friends were having.

As they were walking to class, Alya asked, “how was your photoshoot?”

The arm that Adrien had slung around her shoulders tensed and Marinette bit her lip. 

“It was fine,” Adrien said lightly. “My father showed up this time.”

Alya hesitated then asked, “was he a prat?”

Adrien actually laughed and the sound was genuine. Marinette relaxed. 

“Yeah, he was. I made sure to flip him off when no one was looking.” He grinned. That earned him a round of laughter from his three best friends. 

They made it to homeroom just in time. Mr. Jorge glared at them as they took their seats right before the bell. Marinette was glad that she was able to sit next to Adrien as she wasn’t ready to part ways just yet. 

“What did your father say?” Marinette murmured. She knew that only Adrien and his super hearing would be able to pick up the question. 

A small frown tugged down on his lips, but he kept his eyes locked on their teacher. In the middle of his note page, he left her a message. 

_“Tell you later.”_

It was Marinette’s turn to frown. It must be bad if he couldn’t just write it down for her to see. 

Marinette looked at their teacher and tried to listen to him, but she was too anxious. Her mind immediately darted to doomsday scenarios. Gabriel Agreste had decided to move his brand to America and was taking Adrien with him. Gabriel had decided on a whim to pull Adrien from school. Maybe Gabriel had even decided to send Adrien to a private school far away— 

Marinette wrestled the panicked thoughts into submission and locked them away into a dark corner of her mind. She took a deep breath and forced it all away. Gabriel would never leave the fashion center of the world. Adrien had been perfect on the surface, there was no reason Gabriel would get suspicious and pull him from school or send him away. It was likely just a fancy dinner he had to go to or some kind of snide comment against Adrien’s friends. Nothing life-ending. 

Adrien placed a hand on her knee, sensing her angst. He gave a minute shake of his head. _“Don’t worry,”_ it seemed to say. Marinette forced another deep breath. 

It was going to be a long day.

. . .

They met up in the late afternoon, at a time when neither would be missed at home. Ladybug found Chat Noir sulking on top of a nondescript apartment complex. Ladybug sensed his brooding and decided it was better to let him talk when he was ready. She plopped down beside him, dangling her feet off the edge of the rooftop. 

It took a moment, but Chat sighed and slung an arm around her shoulders. 

“My father wants me to take a date to the next corporate event, and he hinted that I needed to do a good job because an ‘alliance with the Tsurugi clan would be beneficial’. He’s got it in his head that he has the right to tell me who to date and be in a long term relationship with.” Chat’s tone was bleak. 

Ladybug’s heart ached for him. She knew he and Kagami were childhood friends. They had bonded because of their mutual dislike of their overbearing parents, and now those parents were pushing them together again. 

“I wanted to tell him no, and I was about to draw the line, but he had this look in his eyes, and I knew that if I protested, he would blame it on my time here at school. He’d say I was learning from bad examples, that I should respect him and do as told. I didn’t want to risk it…”

Chat’s eyes were as heavy as her heart. “Whenever I even _think_ about standing up to him I feel sick. What kind of hero am I if I can’t stand up to my father? I’m a _coward_.”

Ladybug just had to stop him there. 

“Adrien Agreste, you are anything _but_ a coward. You _can’t_ think like that,” she said, twisting around to take his face in her hands. She forced him to meet her gaze. 

“You are not a coward,” she repeated. His green eyes bore into hers. There was a long pause as Chat’s face softened and his shoulders relaxed. 

“What would I do without you?” he asked softly. Ladybug smiled. 

“You’ve had to take dates to events before,” she reminded him. “Just keep it professional like you always do.”

“This is different, Mari. I actually _know_ Kagami. My father is pushing for an _actual_ relationship.” Chat’s hands rose to rest atop hers.

“Well, Kagami probably isn’t thrilled either. Talk to her, tell her how you feel. I’m sure she’ll understand, you guys are friends.” She smirked. “You know, I could always beat your dad up if you wanted.”

Chat laughed as Ladybug briefly indulged in the fantasy of punching Gabriel Agreste in the face for everything he had done to his son.

“So you’ll forgive me?” he asked, catching one of her hands as she pulled away. 

She looked back up at him. 

“I will always forgive you,” she promised. “You mean more to me than anything else in this world. We’re partners.” She squeezed his hand. 

“Likewise, LB.”


End file.
